Jim is right. HST is in a ~370 km, ~28.5 degree (in relationship to the Earth's equator) orbit while ISS's orbit is ~570 km, ~51.6 degree. The shuttle's orbital maneuvering system does allow some change in orbital plane and altitude but not that much. I still like the idea of having a second shuttle prep'd and ready just in case but, as was mentioned before, that would probably cost too much. Patrick Jim Cobb wrote:
I'm sure ISS and Hubble are in different orbital planes. It would take a lot of thrust to change from one to the next–probably too much.
On Feb 10, 2004, at 9:35 AM, Richard Tenney wrote:
I suppose this is pretty naive of me as to how these things work, but couldn't NASA plan a service trip to ISS that would also include servicing Hubble while they are already in orbit, or are the distances between the two craft prohibitively far apart? Or is it more a matter of supply weights? (though I'm guessing a new Pentium-1 processor [has to be 5-year-old technology at least] and a few new gyros, a couple of propellant canisters and a new CCD chip wouldn't weigh THAT much, or...)?ð